In Tampa, Blake Coleman and Anthony Cirelli (empty net) scored late in the third period to end the Nashville Predators’ dreams of rallying on Saturday night.
The Preds had closed to within one goal, 4-3, of the Lightning before those two scores.
The Lightning raised their Stanley Cup banner before the game.
“It was awesome,” Coleman said. “3,800 and it felt almost like a sold-out building to me. You could feel the energy, the excitement of having people back and their excitement being around the team again. I know for me personally seeing that banner go up brought it all back, a big wave of feelings, and really reminds you of what we went through in that bubble (in Toronto and Edmonton for the postseason) as a team.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the win.
Yakov Trenin, Alexandre Carrier and Erik Haula scored for Nashville.
“I think there’s a lot of positives to take out of the game, we just have to clean up some of these mistakes at key times,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “I thought we really fought our way back in the game. It was a one-goal game and we have a mental error going back in defensive-zone coverage. And those are little things.”
Tyler Johnson and Mathieu Joseph potted goals for the Lightning to give them a 2-0 lead.
Alex Killorn pushed the lead to 3-0 with a strike off the power play.
“[The power play is] vibing right now, and it’s big because they are winning face-offs and get puck possession, that adds to it,” Tampa head coach Jon Cooper said. “You have your retrievals and shooting pucks and making plays, so they are getting rewarded.”
Brayden Point also scored for Tampa.
“You don’t defend that,” Coleman said. “He’s just another level of special when he’s carrying the puck up the ice. [When] you have 15 NHL players on the bench kicking each other saying, ‘Did you see that?’ you know you have special talent.”
Pekka Rinne made 22 saves in the loss.
For Carrier, it was his his first NHL point on the goal in the third period.
“It’s been a long journey, but it’s been a good process,” Carrier said. “I learned a lot. The goal felt awesome, but at the same time we didn’t get the two points.”
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